Elijah Was a Man With a Nature Like Ours: Prayer Note # 10

     “Why did Elijah have to ask seven times? Seven is the biblical number of completion, and I’m sure God was teaching us that we must pray until the task is accomplished. But why would this or any other prayer endeavor require perseverance, when it was God’s will, idea and timing?

     James clarifies the answer to this question. Yes, ‘the effectual fervent prayer’ of this man stopped and brought the rain:

     Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed

     earnestly that it might not rain; and it did not rain on

     the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed

     again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced

     its fruit:   (James. 5:17, 18)

 

     The only logical answer to the question of why Elijah needed to pray is simply that God has chosen to work through people. Andrew Murray succinctly speaks of our need to ask: ‘God’s giving is inseparably connected with our asking…Only by intercession can that power be brought down from heaven which will enable the Church to conquer the world.’ ”

Prayer Note # 10 Elijah Was a Man With a Nature Like Ours - Taken from Dutch Sheets’ book, Intercessory Prayer    (pgs 30, 31)   

“Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.”   (Col. 4:2 NKJV)

Next Prayer Note Feb. 7^th- Daniel, a Man of Prayer: Prayer Note # 11

jowildflowers@gmail.com    jean-oathout.blogspot.com   Tomorrow’s post:  Man of God  from A Daily Devotional by Godtube